Bethel pushes to complete bridge work in time

Updated 10:31 pm, Thursday, September 19, 2013

Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker looks at the stalled work on the Walnut Hill Road bridge in Bethel, Conn., Wed. Sept. 18, 2013. The bridge work is administered by the town with state oversight.

Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker looks at the stalled work on the Walnut Hill Road bridge in Bethel, Conn., Wed. Sept. 18, 2013. The bridge work is administered by the town with state oversight.

Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker looks at the stalled work on the Walnut Hill Road bridge in Bethel, Conn., Wed. Sept. 18, 2013. The bridge work is administered by the town with state oversight.

Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker looks at the stalled work on the Walnut Hill Road bridge in Bethel, Conn., Wed. Sept. 18, 2013. The bridge work is administered by the town with state oversight.

The state allows this type of work when water is at its lowest level, usually the end of the summer, though an extension can be given in certain conditions.

State and local officials are set to meet at the bridge Friday morning to review proposed changes for the south side of the bridge.

"There definitely are difficult issues," said Bethel Town Engineer Andrew Morosky, liaison between the contractor and the state. "It's in a very tight spot with the proximity of the houses and the high voltage transmission tower."

The environmental permit prevents work on both sides of the bridge at once, which has slowed progress, he said.

The old bridge was built with concrete and fieldstone abutments on the stream bed, but over the years it has been undermined by rain.

A decade ago, the state determined the bridge needed to be replaced, but the work was postponed. Then it needed engineering drawings, biological surveys and an environmental review before the project was put out to bid, Knickerbocker said.

The bridge is paid for mainly with federal dollars and the project has been administered by the town with the state's oversight.

Construction began in April. The bridge was closed, detours created with the expectation that it would reopen in December, Knickerbocker said.

The north side of the bridge was excavated first, which required building a dam. The bridge abutments were to be anchored to the bedrock.

But that phase faced a three-week delay because the bedrock was deeper that expected and the bridge work needed some redesign, he said.

Now the crew is working on the south side of the bridge.

They found the bedrock drops off more than revealed in the design phase, so they have been stalled for the past three weeks as the bridge is redesigned to address the change, Knickerbocker said.

That will require the construction of a cofferdam so the concrete can be poured and the water kept out, with time allowed for the concrete to set.

"I've been told that they've redesigned it, but they've only got 10 days to build the base of abutments before they have to stop working in the water," Knickerbocker said.

Once the water work is done, the other work can continue past that deadline, but if it abutments aren't completed, the bridge will have to remain closed through the winter.

The project remains under budget, which was more than $1 million, Morowsky said.

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"Right now, we're focused on a solution," he said, that would make the bridge passable for the winter.